Ever Afterlife
by werewolfgirl136
Summary: James and Lily died that fateful Halloween night at Godric's Hollow. But what happened to them afterward? How did they feel about the life their son has after they are gone? In the afterlife they get reunited with lost family and friends while watching down on the ones they left behind until the day they get reunited.
1. Chapter 1

James paced and paced more times than he could count. He wished that Lily was there with him but he desperately hoped she wouldn't follow him. This time he actually wanted to be alone. He wanted her to stay in that bloody house instead of following him like she had a tendency to do. Her bloody Gryffindor courage.

He felt like he had been there for weeks when in reality it was only a couple minutes before James heard a noise. He stopped in his tracks and slowly looked up. A rush of sadness flooded over him tinged with relief as he looked up on the faces of the only woman he had ever loved.

"James." Her choked voice managed to force out before she collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

James rushed over to her and fell to his knees before gathering her up in his arms.

"I'm so sorry Lily, I'm so sorry!" James mumbled into her hair.

"I wasn't strong enough. Not strong enough..." Lily started as a fresh wave of hysterics came over her.

James felt the warmth stream down his face as he tried to comfort Lily while knowing exactly how she felt and feeling ten times worse. This was all his fault. He would never forgive himself for not protecting them. For putting that huge burden on her.

"Harry….Harry…." Her words trailed off as the tears rocked her body.

"I'm so sorry Lily. I failed you. I was the one who wasn't strong enough. I should have protected you and Harry better. I shouldn't of failed you." James couldn't push part the choking ball of regret that had taken up permanent residence in his throat.

James' statement made Lily's crying slow down enough to look him in the eye. He immediately turned away from her gaze but she gently cupped his face and forced his eyes to meet hers.

"James, you are the bravest, most courageous man I know with the biggest heart. If you didn't notice, you were strong to hold your ground against an unknown adversary when you could have coward, you were strong enough to raise your wand when you could have run, you were strong enough to let us go when you wanted us to stay and you were strong enough to make the ultimate sacrifice. You were strong enough for us James and that is the farthest thing from failure."

"But you're here Lily when you should be with our son, with Harry." James whispered.

"Nothing happens the way it should be. Our lives our a testament of that. I shouldn't of fallen in love with you. We shouldn't of gotten married so young. We shouldn't of been fighting in a war. We shouldn't of gotten pregnant and had to go into hiding. We shouldn't of trusted Peter. Life happens the way it wants to, not the way we want it to."

"Peter? What about not trusting Peter?" James had been following along up until that point.

"Oh James." Lily's eyes softened at her husband's confusion. "You are such a fiercely loyal friend and you do have such a big heart. Remember that I don't say this lightly or without any consideration, but Peter betrayed up. Peter is the reason we are here."

Lily watched as her husband processed this. Lacing their fingers together she brought his hands up and kissed his knuckles as his face flashed with emotions.

"But Peter… We always… He was… How could he… why… but… Peter…" Slowly James brain processed and understood. As Lily predicted the anger overshadowed the pain.

"That bloody rat! Just wait until I get my hands on him." James started to stand up only to have Lily pull him back down.

"Lily let go! I have to go tell Sirius and Remus that Peter really is a rat and then we have to find him and…" Lily placed a finger on his lips.

"James. You can't."

"Bloody hell I can't! Watch me!"

"No James, you can't. You can't talk to any of them anymore. Ever." Lily said softly.

Finally he remembered where he was and what that actually means. He slumped back down to the floor and Lily held his hands to her face, silent tears washing over them.

"Padfoot and Mooney… I'll never see again…." James' voice trailed off on the magnitude of that statement hit. He would never be able to talk to his friends again, never be able to laugh with them, to prank with them. The tears kept coming and he didn't bother stopping them.

* * *

After a while Lily finally spoke. "Harry should have been here by now. There's no way he would have been left alive. Where is he?" Lily started to get panicked.

"Maybe it just hasn't been as long as we thought. Or maybe the Order got there just in time. Anything could have happened down there Lily. We have no way of knowing."

As if the room, because upon further investigation they were actually in a room, knew what they were saying, one of the walls flashed with scenes from the living. James and Lily watched as Hagrid handed a bundle over to Dumbledore.

"No. He can't be. He's not here... " Lily was about to burst with a fresh wave of sobs when James spoke up.

"Wait, he's not dead. Lily look, he's still alive." James whispered in awe to his wife.

 _"_ _This boy will be famous. There won't be a child in our world who doesn't know his name."_

 _"_ _Exactly. He's better off growing up away from all that. Until he is ready."_

They listened to McGonagall and Dumbledore's exchange as he placed their precious bundle on the porch of Number 4 Privet Drive.

"My sister." When Lily realized who Dumbledore was passing Harry off to she couldn't decide if she was grateful or disheartened. Harry would grow up around the only blood family he has, but Lily remembered how horrified of magic Petunia's husband was. Lily hoped that since Petunia had a little one as well that she would realize how important it would be for Harry to know about his parents and maybe, just maybe they wouldn't keep him from the world he was intended to grow up in, the world who had his real family and that he belonged in.

"What?" James asked his wife.

"Dumbledore is leaving Harry with my sister." Lily clarified.

"Why? Harry already has a family. DUmbledore knows that. He was there when we named Sirius and Marlene Harry's godparents. Since Marlene is gone then Sirius would take Harry. Remus would help out too. Dumbledore knew this so what is he doing?!" James was beside himself with rage.

"I.. I don't know James. We have to trust Dumbledore though, he knows what he is doing."

"How could Sirius let this happen? He would want Harry." James was sorting through the information out loud. "What if Sirius couldn't take him? What if he's…"

"No." Lily stopped him before he could go any further with that thought process. "He would be here if he was and he's not here James. He's not here." When Lily was saying that the screen on the wall changed again.

 _"_ _Pettigrew! How dare you run like the rat you are! We befriended you! You bloody coward, you disgrace the house of Godric Gryffindor and the Marauders! You didn't deserve our friendship or our trust. Say hello to your 'master' for me you worthless coward." Sirius was about to draw his wand, regardless of the dozen or so muggles along the street when Peter whipped out his wand and cast sonorus._

 _"_ _Lily and James, Sirius. How could you?!_ _" He then reversed the spell and said loud enough for Sirius to hear, "Confingo."_

 _The street exploded and Sirius was shot into the air and slammed against a building knocking him out. Muggles were screaming and bodies were mixed among rubble as the street was carved out, exposing the sewer pipes below. Among the chaos, nobody noticed Peter slash his wand along his finger letting the appendage drop to the ground before transforming into a literal rat and scurrying through the rubble and down into the pipes and sewage lines below._

"THAT CONNIVING RAT! I HOPE HE DROWNS IN THAT RUBBISH AS THE DIRTY RAT HE IS!" James wished he could run down there and hunt Peter down and ring his neck himself.

"Get up Sirius.. Get up…" Lily was watching the motionless body of one of her best friends laying on the ground. As if he heard her desperate plea, Sirius stirred.

 _"_ _Uugh." Sirius climbed to his feet rubbing his head. Looking around he remembered what he was doing there and ran off to the middle of the crater in the street. He whipped around a couple times searching for Peter before glancing down and noticing a finger laying near a heap of bloodstained robes among the rubble_ _. Surprisingly he burst into manic laughing and he felt it deep in his stomach as it poured out his body. His only thought was that it was sweet justice that a spell that James helped Peter practice was his ultimate doom._

 _Pop! Pop! Pop!_

 _Sirius couldn't stop laughing as the Aurors took him to the Ministry of Magic and he couldn't stop laughing as they sentenced him to Azkaban for bringing about the death of two of his best friends, one traitor and a dozen innocent muggles. He finally stopped laughing when he was locked in his cell and the reality of it all hit him. The laughter turned to hysterics and tears as he realized what he ultimately lost because of one cowardly little rat._

"Padfoot…." Was all James could whisper before he sunk to his knees in front of the screen of his best friend sitting in a cage. Lily had no words. She wrapped her arms around her husband and let him bury into her warmth. Eventually the two fell asleep like that.


	2. Chapter 2

"Lily. Lily." Lily felt a gentle shaking on her shoulder. She slowly stretched and allowed her eyes to flutter.

"James?" Lily felt more refreshed than she had been in a while. "James, it's a miracle. You slept through the whole night." Lily opened her eyes all the way and turned to where her husband should have been. Looking around the events of the previous night started flooding Lily's mind. She felt her breathing catch and her chest starting to get tight. Holding her head she tried to take deep breaths and calm herself. Feeling a hand rubbing her back she whipped her head around and gasped.

"Hey Lily."

"Marlene." Lily felt the tears well up in her eyes before she launched herself at her best friend. Wrapping her arms around her she felt like no time had passed at all since their last day together. As much as Lily had missed her best friend, she secretly hoped that it would be a long time before she saw her again. Having those familiar arms squeezing her tight she let go of all the emotions inside, pouring them out into the comforting and understanding embrace of the person who knew her as much as James did.

Finally Lily's sobs subsided and she was able to think. Pulling away from Marlene she wiped her face and attempted to fix her hair.

"Feel better?" Marlene asked although she already knew the answer.

"Loads. I've missed you so much Marlene."

"I've missed you too. Although I really had hoped that we wouldn't be reunited quite so soon." There was more than a touch of sadness in her voice.

"I tried, but I just couldn't let him take my little boy. My life was nothing compared to his, Mar." Lily said quietly.

"I would have done the same thing. I wish I would have had that opportunity. Even if it still meant me being here, to be able to have a little bit of time with your baby would be better than nothing." Marlene had such sadness in her eyes as she spoke that it triggered something for Lily.

"Marlene," she said slowly. "were you...pregnant when it happened?" Lily held her breath as her best friend looked up at her from her recent position sitting on the couch.

"I don't know." she confessed. "Sirius and I weren't trying, but we weren't opposed to the idea if it happened. I had just missed a period, but I didn't want to get my hopes up with the war going on because it could have been caused by stress. I never got a chance to find out before I ended up here." Marlene looked like more than her body died when she was killed; it looked like a part of her soul had been murdered too because of that unanswered question.

Lily dropped into the seat next to her friend and curled an arm around her slumped shoulders.

"I just wish I could have given him the family he always deserved. I was just getting him to warm up to the idea of kids. Harry helped with that. He was afraid of not being good at it because of his messed up, deranged family but the more time he spent with Harry, the more he talked about what he would do with his own children, with our children. He'll be a great father one day I know it. But I wish I could have been the one to give him that."

"Oh Leena," Marlene managed a small smile on her tearstained face hearing the name Sirius always used for her. "He did have the family he deserved. He had James and Remus as brothers. He had me as a sister. He has Harry and he's the best godfather we could ask for. And he had you. You were so special to him and he was always brighter because of you. He did, does, have family and I'm glad for it. Sirius may not be his father, but he's the closest thing that Harry has now, besides Remus, and I can rest easier because of that and I know a big part of that is because of you."

"Thanks Lily. I just miss him so much." Marlene said as her tears subsided significantly.

"And he misses you." Lily hugged her friend once more before looking around the whitewashed walls and couch they were currently sitting on. Lily previously hadn't been that interested in her surroundings but now came to the conclusion that the couch hadn't been there when she woke up and the bed that she remembered waking up in, but not going to sleep in, wasn't there.

"What exactly is this place Marlene?" She asked more than slightly confused and that perked Marlene right up. She always loved knowing something that Lily didn't, which happened very rarely.

"This place is anything you want it to be." Marlene grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her up as she stood. "Close your eyes and imagine we're in the living room of your dream house." Lily did as she was told and when she opened her eyes she couldn't believe what she saw. An exact replica of the house James and Lily had always talked about getting, not the little cottage that they had been confined in when they were being hunted. Everything was cozy yet spacious. Lily walked in awe throughout the house and found everything they had talked about or discussed about wanting one day.

"This is incredible." Lily walked out the front door with Marlene following and smiled at the yard sounded by lush beautiful trees. A small dirt road winded through the trees and she could see the edge of another house right around a turn. Marlene noticed Lily spotting the house and stepped by her side.

"That's my house. Would you like to come see it? Or would you like to go visit James?" She asked her friend.

"I'd love to see where you live." Lily exclaimed.

They walked the short distance to Marlene's. She showed Lily the living room and kitchen, dining room and office, bedroom, bathroom and finally the last room Marlene showed Lily was the nursery.

"A nursery? Marlene I thought you didn't know if you were pregnant or not." Lily asked.

"I didn't. But I might have been and since I'll never know, it just seemed right to have one. It's difficult to come inside on some days, but it helps me remember Sirius also. I loved watching him with Harry and wishing that would be us one day. He would have been a good father and even though I'm gone, I hope he does get to experience that during his life. He deserves to be happy and I'll be waiting for him here, if he still wants me."

Lily embraced her friend as they stood in the doorway of the nursery.

"I think we should go find James now." Marlene said quietly, shutting the door of the nursery.

Lily just nodded and followed her friend back through the house.

After a short walk they ended up at a beautiful park with wide grass areas and a tree lined pond. She spotted a small area underneath some trees that had a couple wooden benches with sky blue cushions on them. There were three people sitting on the benches and she immediately saw James, who happened to be facing her. The other two people, one woman and one man, had their backs to her though so she couldn't make out who they were. When James spotted her his face lit up and she flashed her that smile that made her heart leap. Noticing that they didn't have his attention anymore, the couple turned to see what had caught James' eye. Lily felt a rush of emotion inside her as she recognized James' warm, caring smile in the face of the woman and she saw his loving yet mischievous eyes looking back at her from the face of the man. Marlene gave Lily a quick hug before retreating back to her house.

"Lily." James had gotten up and took her hand, leading her to the bench across from the couple. "Do you remember my parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter? Mum, Dad, remember Lily?"

Euphemia reached out and clasped Lily's hand between her own, "Of course I remember her. You use to talk about her constantly and she was the most lovely bride." She barely got the words out before Lily threw herself on the woman in a tight hug.

With tears trickling down her face she held onto Euphemia. "Thank you," she whispered. "for raising the man I spent my life with." Euphemia's heart broke and she held the young redhead that was clinging to her.

"It was my absolute pleasure." she whispered back. Lily smiled and gathered herself together quickly.

"It's wonderful to see you again Fleamont." she said as she gave the man a shorter hug.

"I wish they were under different circumstances." he commented when they pulled apart, with a sad smile on his face.

"We all do sweetie." his wife patted his cheek as she reached for her son's hand. It hadn't been long since Euphemia and Fleamont had passed, but she had still missed her son terribly. He had been their whole world and she had hated leaving him when she knew the danger he had been in, but when the Dragon Pox had taken Fleamont first, Euphemia's heart broke and her will was just as weak as her body and she followed just days later. Thinking about it, Euphemia found it poetic that James and Lily's lives, and deaths, should parallel her husband's and her own, yet on a much shorter scale. Both married quickly after finding each other, both had a son, both left a large legacy behind, and both died right after the other. She found it hauntingly beautiful.

They sat and talked for hours, Lily and James telling his parents about Harry, whom they never met, and Euphemia and Fleamont recounting tales of when James was little. They talked about Sirius and Remus with Lily quickly explaining Peter's betrayal when Fleamont brought him up and James painfully recapping what they saw happen to Sirius. Euphemia cried when she heard; Sirius had been a second son to her and she loved him as much as she loved James. She couldn't imagine how Sirius would survive Azkaban for very long with everything that he had lost recently. Maybe her family would be reunited sooner than she wanted.

Shortly after the bad news was delivered, Lily decided that they should head home, knowing that her mother-in-law would need time to process the information. They said their goodbyes and promised to meet up the next day for brunch. The younger couple walked home in silence. When they arrived back at their house James headed straight for the shower. Lily was pretty sure that showers weren't required anymore for them, they seemed to always be clean, but she knew her husband found them comforting so she headed to the bedroom to lay out some comfy pajamas for them both before joining him in the steam filled bathroom.

Lily and James never needed words. They knew what the other wanted, needed and craved without conversation. Their souls, hearts and bodies were intertwined; nourishing, sustaining and satisfying the other until they didn't know where one stopped and another started. They knew the balance of give and take which never left one unfulfilled and had achieved the harmony of euphoria. And just like that all of their fears, worries, heartache and loss disappeared long enough for them to fall asleep peacefully in one another's arms.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors note: Sorry for taking so long to update. I really like the way this is turning out. I did change a couple lines in the first chapter to match up to the book. This chapter is being uploaded really early in the morning because I got on a writing craze and got to a good stopping point. I'm too tired to edit it right now though so if there are mistakes please forgive me. I will edit it within the next couple days and repost it. I hope you all like it. Please favorite, follow or leave a comment if you do! Thanks! -werewolfgirl136

* * *

Over the next couple weeks James and Lily spent their time reconnecting with people. They fell into a regular routine of brunch with the Potter's and then visiting with some of their friends such as Dorcas Meadowes, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Benji Fenwick, Edgar Bones and Caradoc Dearborn; the last having died after James and Lily. Then they would have dinner with Marlene either at their house or hers. After dinner was over and they were again alone they would sit curled up on the sofa or bed watching Harry. Lily knew that Petunia wasn't a good choice to raise her son, but at least Harry had some connection to her still. It made their hearts ache watching him, but it reminded them what they had fought and died for. Sometimes they would sit in silence and others they filled the air with small talk. Occasionally Lily would speak to Harry as if he was actually there and she swore that he could hear her. The first time she had done it he had been crying and wailing. He had been garbling "Mama, Dada, Moone, Paoot," over and over again hoping someone he loved would come and fix whatever catastrophe the one year old was having, but to no avail. Finally Lily couldn't take it and she walked over to the wall where the video was showing and started whispering. "It's alright love. Everything is going to be okay Harry. Mommy is here. Mommy loves you." Immediately Harry stopped crying and laid down in his crib and starting smiling. Lily talked to him until he fell asleep.

The day after that Lily had recounted what happened to her mother-in-law and Euphemia agreed that it was possible that Harry could have actually heard her. "Children are very aware and open to the spirit world, magical children especially so I see no reason why you couldn't be right. It seems very possible that Harry could still hear you. Most of the time when children talk about having invisible or imaginary friends that only they can hear, they are actually people who have passed on that the child is acutely aware of because of a previous attachment in their world."

"So Harry did hear me."

"Mother." James said sharply.

"Yes?"

"Stop. Just stop. I don't want you to encourage this. We are not there with Harry anymore. He may be able to hear us now but he will grow up and not be able to. I don't want my wife to have this crazy idea that we can still be with him. We are dead. He is not. We need to let him live his life. Even though that is without us."

"I can't believe you would want our son to forget about us! How dare you James Potter."

"Of course I don't want him to forget about us, but I don't want him to dwell on us. It doesn't do him well to dwell on dreams and forget to live. If him living life means him forgetting about us then I would cast Obliviate on him myself!" James shouted. He didn't see his mother back away from him, all he saw was the stubborn woman in front of him that refused to see his side because it was different from her own. A fire was in her eyes that he hadn't seen since school, the one that she used to have when he would annoy her until she snapped. That look deflated his anger a bit. He had never wanted to cause that emotion in her again, yet he just had. He looked at the ground, pulling his hand through his hair and stopping at his neck, absentmindedly rubbing it. "If he forgets, then he won't hurt as much. We won't come back, but Mooney and Padfoot are still there. If he forgets us all then when they don't come back it won't hurt as much. He will know that we loved him, that much is obvious, and we didn't choose to leave him, but what will he think when he finds out that they didn't take him in? That they didn't look for him. I don't want him to feel like they abandoned him."

Lily grabbed James' hands in her own. "Look at me." She didn't continue until he did. "One day he will find out. One day Harry will be old enough to know what happened to us, to know that we died to protect him. One day he will find out about Remus and Sirius. And Peter. He will learn and he will hurt. There was too much pain surrounding his first year for him not to. But he will form his own opinions whether he remembers everything or not. I want him to remember that he is loved. I want him to know every day of his life that his mother and father love him enough to give their lives to protect him. I want him to know that we didn't choose this life for him, but we would do it all over again if it means he lives. I want him to know that, I need him to know that, because if he doesn't then all of this was for nothing. If he doesn't know the power of love then we died in vain and even though he's gone, Voldemort will have won. If I stop telling Harry how much we love him then _he_ wins and I refuse to let that bastard win." A different kind of fire was in Lily's eyes this time. The one that made James fall in love with her, the one that made him terrified of her, and the one that made him concede to her every single time. James smirked before kissing his wife with everything he had.

"You're right." he whispered against her lips.

"I'm glad you finally realized the truth." Lily smiled before kissing him again.

* * *

One day Lily and James decided to throw a picnic for their family and friends. They had set up some picnic table on a nice sunny patch of grass and even found some muggle BBQ's in someone's garage. James and the Prewett brothers were wrangling the BBQ while everyone else lounged around letting the sun soak into their skin while the light breeze ruffled through their hair. The birds were chirping and an occasional squirrel or chipmunk could be seen scurrying across the grass and rushing up a tree.

"It's so nice to be able to enjoy the sunshine." Lily commented with her face toward the sun, eyes closed and head back. "We didn't get much of this in England."

"No, we definitely didn't." James agreed, coming up and kissing her on the top of her head. He scooted Lily forward on the bench and sat behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She sighed in contentment and leaned into his warmth.

"Who's that?" Lily opened her eyes to look at who Benji was talking about. The smile slipped off her face and she pulled out of James' arms. Two people, hand in hand, were walking toward the group of picnic tables. Once they got close enough, Lily's hands covered her mouth as a gasp escaped.

"Hello everyone." The man said.

"We've missed you." The woman added before her face was obscured by a waterfall of red hair and Lily held her tightly.

"What happened mate?" James asked after giving Frank Longbottom a quick embrace.

"Bellatrix." Lily gasped. Everyone knew how much Bellatrix Lestrange loved torturing people before finally killing them. The word mercy was never in her vocabulary and people didn't dare utter it around her.

"I'm sorry." Lily said, hugging Alice again.

Alice wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thanks. At least we knew what was going to happen when we saw her. I can't believe Sirius would betray you two like that. I guess the Black blood ran thicker than we thought."

"Sirius is innocent." James practically growled. Lily placed a gentle hand on his arm.

"They don't know." She reminded her husband before turning toward the couple. "It was really Peter who betrayed us. We made him the secret keeper at the last minute, thinking that Voldemort would never suspect him. Turns out Peter was really on his side."

"Wow." Frank ran his hand down his face, trying to rub the shock away. "I guess that would make any man go insane. No wonder Sirius blew him to smithereens. Good riddance."

"I wish. But Pettigrew isn't dead. Sirius went to Azkaban for nothing. Peter is an unregistered animagus. He turned himself into a rat after he cast the spell that killed all those people and escaped into the sewers. That coward."

"Sirius." Alice whispered. They all knew what was on her mind. Their friend lost everything in the course of a twenty-four hour period. His best friends murdered, his godson taken from him, being labeled a traitor and the only thing he had to hold onto, the fact that justice had been served against the real traitor, was a lie. Alice started to cry for her friends, for herself, for her husband and her young son, for everyone that was too young to be caught up in a war stemming from ignorance. She collapsed to the ground, pain in her body starting to cause her to scream. Frank lunged for his wife, only to have her fade from their sight and disappear.

"What happened? ALICE! Where did she go?" Frank was franticly looking back and forth around the group of faces that had gathered since their appearance.

Finally Euphemia spoke up. "Did Bellatrix use the Cruciatus Curse on her?"

"Yes. Me as well. Why?"

"If the Cruciatus Curse was used on you then you may not really be dead. If you were tortured enough then your mind could have turned in on itself, as a form of self preservation, to help you cope with the tremendous amount of pain that your body was dealing with. Unfortunately, once this happens you can never fully go back. A part of you died when that happened and that's what brought you here. You may have flashes of clarity and coherence, which is what just happened to your wife, but for the most part you will reside here, waiting for the day your body decides to give up and your spirit can fully join us. There is no telling when you will flash in and out or how long you will be in each place. I'm sorry." Fleamont held a comforting arm around his wife. She leaned against him as a couple tears slid down her cheeks.

"What happened?" Alice was kneeling a couple feet away from where she had disappeared. Frank ran over to his wife and helped her to her feet. She winced as she stood.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My whole body is sore. I feel like I was trampled by a Hungarian Horntail." Frank started rubbing his wife's back as he led her to the picnic table. "But how is that possible? I shouldn't feel pain since I'm dead, right? And where did I go? I couldn't see anything, but I felt cold. I felt cold and pain." Frank looked toward Euphemia, his eyes begging for her help.

"How about we go back to our house and get you a cup of tea. We can explain everything there." Fleamont said starting to guide his wife back to their place. Frank looked at Alice. He had never seen her look this helpless before. Even when she was being tortured, she was strong. Now she just looked scared and frail. He leaned down and scooped her into his arms holding her tightly before following James parent's to their house.

After watching his parents leave with Frank and Alice, James looked over at his wife. He pulled her into his embrace and kissed the top of her head. "It'll be alright love."

"How? There has been too much death. Too many lives cut down too soon. Too many children orphaned." She choked up thinking about their Harry and Frank and Alice's son Neville.

"Voldemort is dead. His followers are being hunted down and locked up. The war is over." James reassured his wife.

"For now." Lily whispered.

* * *

Years passed and James and Lily fell into their new life, or death, easily. They had lunch dates with James' parents, Lily and Marlene would go on walks or have tea together for hours and Alice and Frank would come over for dinner twice a week.

At first Alice and Frank flashed in and out every couple days, then it gradually became less and less often. It often would happen when Frank's mother would bring their son around to see them. She decided when Neville was nine that he was old enough to see them for half an hour every two weeks. Alice and Frank especially liked those times. They were there with their son in body, but never fully in mind. It was only when they would flash back that they were able to fully appreciate that time. Their mind cleared and they could remember the time they spent with him. They couldn't control when they flashed back and forth, but hearing Neville's voice seemed to trigger something inside them most of the time and they flashed back to his world.

Lily was always slightly jealous that Alice was still able to be in the same room as her son, but she knew that wasn't really living and that Alice would never wish that on anyone. Instead James and Lily had to settle for watching Harry grow up. Most of the time Lily watched his day to day life by herself, James couldn't handle seeing the way Petunia and Vernon treated him and he always blamed himself, saying if he had been stronger then Harry wouldn't have had to go live with someone else. Lily would tell James of Harry's accomplishments; losing his first tooth, tying his shoes by himself, or getting top marks on a homework project. What she left out was that he lost his first tooth when Dudley punched him, he learned to tie his shoes from a book he stole from Dudley after he refused to learn to tie his own and his parents bought him velcro ones and forced Harry to wear his old ones, or that the top marks he got on a homework project was Dudley's that Harry was bullied into doing. Lily did have her low moments where she would only check on Harry once she knew he was in bed and alone. When she didn't have to suffer through watching her sister and her awful husband treat her little boy so horribly. Those quiet moments were the ones where James was more likely to join her. They would hold onto each other on the couch or their bed and find comfort in the small fact that Harry was breathing and alive. That was the best thing they could ever ask for. James and Lily were just holding onto the hope that once Harry went to Hogwarts, his life would change and he wouldn't have to be around the Dursley's ever again. He would be with his own people and would finally find a place in their world, the wizarding world.

A year before Harry was to start Hogwarts, they had a newcomer. Pandora Lovegood joined their circle of friends. She was a lovely woman with long, wavy blonde hair and soft eyes. She was very smart and creative and her and Lily had an instant bond. Pandora had been experimenting with a new spell when it went wrong and she accidently killed herself. Her nine year old daughter Luna had been in the room and saw it happen. This was Pandora's one regret and relief at the same time. Regret that Luna had to witness that at a young age yet relief that Luna had not been hurt. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something happened to her sweet Luna. Once she arrived, Pandora was a regular at Lily and Marlene's teas and she often joined the lot of them when they got together for a picnic or dinner at someone's house. She slid easily into their group dynamic and soon they forget that they didn't know her before their deaths and that they hadn't been friends forever.

They had fallen into such a rhythm of normalcy that when Harry received his first Hogwarts letter, chaos ensued.


End file.
